The new US envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, Thursday held his first meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo, weeks after Pyongyang said it was planning to launch a rocket.

Bosworth met Akitaka Saiki, the Japanese foreign ministry's director general for Asian and Oceanian affairs, for about one hour. The two diplomats made no comment to the media after their talks.

Bosworth, who succeeds US diplomat Christopher Hill, came to Tokyo after visiting Beijing, where he said both the United States and China believed "it would not be a good idea to have a missile launch."

North Korea has said it will fire a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, which the United States and South Korea believe is a pretext to test a missile that could theoretically reach Alaska.

Bosworth is scheduled to travel to South Korea Saturday.